Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Review - Leftovers by Treva Harte

Thanksgiving means family, and in their case friends--old friends and the best of them. Emerson was looking forward to sharing his new home, his culinary skills, his settledness, with his on-again-off-again lover Paul and their old college buddy Liz. Everyone always knew that Paul and Emerson were meant for each other. But years down the road, Paul's on the road, chasing fame and fortune. And Emerson, for reasons all his own, refuses to follow him.

This year, though, Paul's determined to change all that. To convince Emerson through charm, logic, and incredible sex they were meant for each other. What neither of them counted on was what would change after that.

I had a very hard time with this story. The characters didn’t seem real for me, and the story didn’t seem to flow as well as it could have. There were a couple of instances where we get a flashback-type look at Emerson and Paul’s past relationship. The way these skips were handled were a bit difficult to follow and really broke up what momentum the story had managed to acquire.

I also had a lot of trouble connecting with these characters. While there were some instances that stood out and made them seem more real, those were very few. For the most part, the characters felt very flat. There was also a lot of telling about how they felt about a given situation and not a lot of showing. It made for a dry read.

I really wanted to enjoy this work. Emerson’s condition is a fairly unusual one, and it could have made for a very compelling story to see how the two people closest to him, his lover and his best friend, handled finding out about it and helping him overcome it. As it is, the story didn’t quite get there, and that was a bit disappointing.